Big Decisions

This was a pic taken up in Canada. I was on a run with Ben (who is Ben you ask?) and I saw this giant log thing and realized that it looked like the worlds largest turtle! It really looked like it might get up and walk off at any moment.


So this last week was filled with a few big decisions. The first being the Supreme Courts ruling in California on gay marriage. I am not going to get into that now but will later as the whole thing is more complex than it appears and I want to spell it out with all the facts. The second is related to my triathlon life. I decided that I am going to race one more year as an age grouper and have given up my pro card.

This was a decision that I was thinking about for the past few weeks. I talked to a few friends around here that I trust and it seems that everyone was in favor of me switching back. With the injury I faced this last year I don't think I am ready to step it up a notch just yet. I may still make the gains that I want to this year but I think that it would be a lot harder with the added pressure of racing pro. Even though racing "pro" is in some ways just a "classification" I still found that there are pressures around it that I really don't need right now.

I do eventually want to race pro but only when I am confident that I can race at that level. I see a lot of guys out there that have the talent but don't cut the mustard when it comes to results. Having a year like that will not benefit a guy like me. Gordo and I talked allot about the "enjoyment factor" and I realized that I wasn't enjoying what I was doing as much anymore. I think it came from this feeling that if I raced pro I was going to have to be spot on every time I came to the line. Granted, that is based alot on just worrying what other people think and maybe that is the case. I just don't want to go to a race as a pro and finish 3rd in my age. I think that's silly. But that's just me.

What I want to focus on now is having a solid year so that I do make even more gains that allow me to have the confidence to race pro. Part of that is going to be having an injury free year. So far we are still on track. If I raced pro I think I may have felt the need to rush things and that might put me back to square one with my foot. In the age group field I can relax a bit and go at my own pace. Besides, there are PLENTY of awesome age group athletes that make the field pretty damn competitive!

Some may ask how I was able to have a pro card and go back to age group this year. The simple answer is that I haven't raced yet. I never raced pro in 08 and called USAT to make sure all this was kosher and have been cleared etc.

With the switch back I also found some fire starting around an Ironman. I clearly don't have the fitness right now to do an Ironman anytime soon but as my body becomes stronger and the injury, plantar faciitis (AKA Schizophrenia of the foot) goes away, I think I would like to get a Hawaii slot and build up for it later in the year. I'm not totally sold on the idea yet but I will take my slot if I get it in Honu or anywhere else. I just love that race and had a blast last year. Having another crack at it as an age grouper seems like a great challenge to me. I was 97th overall last year so 75th seems like a nice target :-)

Training is going well and I just had a test on the bike over at Gordo's "Endurance Corner Lab". I showed signs of improvement and have actually found the testing to be helpful. I was such a skeptic before and really had no interest in it. But now I quite like it and enjoy using my power meter and dare I say heart rate monitor a bit. If anything I think it is fun to go in the lab and try and beat your last test or show that the bod is more efficient. Matt Steinmetz does the test and is really good at getting you to give it towards the end when it gets hard. And yes, this is a blatant plug for Endurance Corner! Those guys have been really good to me from the start and they have a good little show going on over there.

Well I am now a few days out of leaving for paradise to go race Honu. Lots of great friends racing from all over the world and Ben! "Whose Ben?"

Cheers,
bdc

Denver Academy Diversity Day

I haven't got my site complete yet so I am going to use this blog for a non tri post (like I said I wouldn't LOL) The pic above is an attempt to balance it out. Marky V had asked me if I wanted to go Snow Shoeing up in the mountains for some "cross training" and this pic is from that day. That is actually Mark in the pic....

This last week I had the privilege of being a guest lecturer at The Denver Academy High School for their Diversity Day. I was asked to speak about the Matthew Shepard murder and also share my own personal experiences with coming out and growing up gay.

The day was broken up into two 55 min sessions followed by a lunch session with all the speakers and students for a larger discussion section. I didn't have that much information on what the day would be like so I kind of went into it a bit blind. I had several things prepared and decided that I would make a really quick assessment of the situation and go from there. For the most part I am really good at "winging" it.

When I got there I found I was a bit nervous. I haven't really talked on this subject to a group this young and wasn't exactly sure how they would react. I figured it would go both ways with some kids being accepting and others not so much. I decided that I would try and make the sessions as interactive as possible and encourage questions and sharing. However, I was going to stay away from anything that dealt with sex, religion and politics. That isn't so easy to do with this subject because right now that is the "hub" of homosexuality. It is heavily in the political arena, religions battle about it and well, part of being gay obviously involves sex. So how was I going to go about this staying away from the big three?

It turned out to be much easier than I thought. Most of the kids were really interested in my story and I easily transitioned most of the talk into a larger scope that dealt with the way in which we all judge people. I think the idea is not to stop judging but rather, where do you go after your judgment? It would be nice if we didn't judge people as much as we did but it seems we are hard wired to do it. We need to start taking our judgments and question the reasons we have them. Much of the information that we obtain on a certain subject or group of people is not correct. Taking a moment to think about things a bit more will help with that realization. I catch myself doing it. I will have developed an opinion on something and then realize that my information on it is limited and sketchy.

In regards to homosexuality, many people have very strong opinions about it that are based on miss information. Some of the questions I get absolutely floor me. "So when you are in a relationship, who is the guy and who is the girl?" That is my favorite one!

All in all I found the kids at this school to be WAY smarter than most adults on issues of diversity. It gave me a lot of hope to see so many smart young individuals that get "it" on so many levels. My talk probably would have been more effective if given to the parents.

It really is all about education and obtaining truthful information. I try to check myself when I have an opinion about something that I don't have that much information on. Even if it is as simple as my thoughts on a movie that I haven't seen. I realize it isn't fair to comment on it. People need to stop making comments on things that they know nothing about. We do it ALL the time. I do my best these days not to. It is okay to not have an opinion on something and just say " I really don't know". Lets all try it.

UCLA Cross Country Alumni Race

What a difference a few weeks make! I have noticed that in the last few weeks things have really turned around. I was in a physical and mental slump in regards to triathlon for a decent amount of time and I am seeing a very bright light at the end of this tunnel. I say "this" tunnel because as we all know, it would be foolish to think that it would be the last "tunnel" when doing triathlons. It's part of it and the people who manage those times best seem to do quite well.

Anyway, as I said, things are on the up and up. I had made a quick last minute trip to LA this weekend. It just so happened that I had a meeting out there on Friday and the UCLA Cross Country Alumni Race was on Saturday. I had not been able to go to the race in the last two years so I was pretty stoked that I would be out there.

The race is a 2,400. I think we figure that is long enough but not too long while short enough but not too short. The race had been taken off the track because it was felt that the track was too intimidating and attendance became low. That was fine with me as I was in no shape to run a 2,400 on the track.

The race site was on our old stomping ground in Brentwood. We met at 26th and San Vicente which is one of the major running areas in LA. I can't begin to tell you how many times I ran up and down that strip while in college. Even when I was younger I ran and raced there as my parents always took me to the Brentwood 5K/10K race. I think I actually ran it when I was under the age of 10!.

San Vicente has a huge grass median that we run on and there are these really big trees that have roots that pop out of the ground about every 20 feet. If most people are not careful they are sure to go down. Back in college we could run that strip with our eyes closed and never hit a root!

So the race, which I decided to take part in, started at the top of SV and 26th. When I rolled up in the car I was shocked to see Bob Larson standing there. I had no idea that the "Bobcat" would be there. He had his mega phone in hand just like old times. Bob is now the head Olympic Track Coach and well known for coaching my former teammate and high school rival Meb Keflezigi. Meb had that extra something back then that we all lacked which took him to a Silver Medal in the Olympic Marathon. That extra something wasn't necessarily athletic potential. The guy was just mentally mature to a point none of us were. I guess that is what happens when your family flees a war torn part of Africa. Most of us were taking our college time for granted......

Meb wasn't at the race but he had planned to be at the UCLA/USC track meet going on later that day. A few of the guys I knew and ran with were there, most noticeably Matt Olin. He was my best friend in college and is exactly the same today. It was a real trip to be lined up on SV next to Matt with Bobcat giving us the workout.

I had debated not to do the run because of the fear of possibly injury. But I gave in and decided that I would do it. I figured I would have a "get out of jail free" card on this one. I was the most "trained" guy there and to sit on the sideline was just dumb.

After Bob got done making his jokes like he always did (some funny, others horribly painfull!) he sounded his horn and off we went. It didn't seem like we were running that fast but in a few min a could feel my lungs burning a bit. That could have been from the speed or the smog! I just kept chugging along and was laughing that I was so far back. I had to take it out a bit slower as I think all this IM training has made me slow. I haven't done any top end running in a few years other than races and boy could I feel it.

Bob was standing at the mile marker with his horn yelling out splits. I didn't have my watch on and figured we were running about 6 min mile pace. We came through at 5:01 LOL! No wonder my lungs were burning. Who knew I could run a 5 min mile out of the blue like that?? We kept the same pace for the rest of the race which was only 800 meters more. When it was done I felt like I had taken a shot of battery acid. To think we would do 8 of those at a pace much faster and not really even notice it until number 7.

Matt and I decided to go on one of our old runs since we were down that way. We headed to the Santa Monica Pier and actually ran our to the end of it. Matt and I were the only guys who used to run all the way to the end. We always felt that if we were down there we might as well enjoy it. The water looked really nasty and it pains me to think LA Tri Club people swim in it. I used to do that. Yuck!

Once back from our run which was about an hour total we gave a good stretch and then I had to rush off. I was doing a charity spin class for the Aids Life Cycle. It was an hour 30 class and was trying to figure out how I was going to be able to do that now. All in all the class was fine. Spinning is so hard if you don't do it. Even with bike fitness it still gives you a much harder workout. I think that is because it requires a strength that we don't really use on the bike. I liked it alot and found myself super sore the next day.

I was worried that my decision to do the race and the spin class would hurt me but it didn't at all and I really think I might be able to start training my top end a bit more. After the the Alumni race it made me realize that if I was injury free I could totally get myself back in to 15 min 5k shape. That is only 3x4:50 mile. If I can do a 2,400 at 7:20 pace off nothing a 15 min 5K is not that far off. But not that I am going to train for that. However, it did give me some confidence that I could get down to my 1:15 1/2 ironman run time. So we will see what happens.

As of now I am still going to proceed with caution. I have decide that Hawaii 70.3 (Honu) will be my first race. Looking forward to it and will keep the postings current on how the training is going. The new site should be up around Friday where I will be starting my other blog that doesn't talk about triathlon or sports.

Cheers,
bdc